Taxes on rich to be part of Punjab budget

[CMY]

By Sajid Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Taxing the rich, targeted subsidies and a large development programme will be incorporated into Punjab’s provincial budget for the fiscal year 2008-09, Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira told Daily Times on Monday.

In an exclusive interview, he said that the government would like the “Defence Housing Authority and other major schemes in the real estate sector to contribute in provincial kitty to serve poorest of the poor.” He said the government would offer large subsidies to the deserving population of the province. “We are taking due care in deciding the scope of provincial subsidies, which would be different from those offered by the federal government in the federal budget,” he added.

ADP: Kaira said that the Annual Development Plan (ADP) for Punjab would also be increased, adding that it could exceed Rs 121 billion. He said that the ADP, as well as other initiatives to be announced in the provincial budget, would help create new jobs in each district of the province. He also said that the provincial share in the Public Sector Development Programme should not be decreased, adding that they would ask the federal government to increase it to Rs 170 billion from Rs 150 billion.

The minister said that all four provinces had demanded the federal government transfer collection rights of the General Sales Tax (GST) on services to the provinces, as well as reducing federal tax collection charges from five to two percent. This would clear a portion of the provincial dues of Rs 286 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year, he added.

Kaira said that the present collection of the GST stood at around Rs 38 billion. He said that Punjab would be able to collect an additional Rs 15-18 billion annually if the collection rights were transferred to the provinces. He said that the federal government was charging too much for the collection of federal taxes, and reducing the amount by three percent would grant the provinces their due share from the centre.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg7_29